July topsy-turvy month for weather

One of driest periods, but humidity made it feel wet outside

One of driest periods, but humidity made it feel wet outside

August 03, 2007|By Russ Keen, American News Writer

What ironic weather July brought to the Aberdeen area - unusually dry yet miserably and even fatally humid. While lack of rain set back crops, high humidity probably contributed to the deaths of almost 3,000 cattle, a loss that longtime feedlot operators said was unprecedented in their lifetimes during a heat wave. The month that breezily waved goodbye on Tuesday was the seventh-driest July in Aberdeen since records began in 1893, said Glenn Nielsen of the National Weather Service office in Aberdeen. The city received 0.79 inch of rain compared to a norm of 2.92 inches for the month. The city's record low for July is 0.3 inch in 1975, a drought year, he said. The farm scene: Most of the 2,835 cattle reported dead succumbed on July 23 when the temperature reached 97 and the heat index hit 106. The death toll covers Brown, Day, Marshall and Beadle counties. Speculation continues as to why so many died. The area has had similar heat waves before with similar high humidity, according to the National Weather Service, without cattle casualties in the thousands. Producers and ag officials said the absence of a breeze on July 23 might explain the deaths. A South Dakota State University professor intends to find out why. Eric Loe, a beef feedlot specialist, said he will perform extensive research at the death sites this summer to try to identify causes. Results probably won't be available until mid- to late fall, he said. Most of the deaths occurred in feedlots. Loe said he will examine the rations being fed to the cattle as well as environmental conditions at the time of the losses. An unbalanced diet diminishes an animal's ability to handle heat stress, although there's no reason to suggest at this point that's why the cattle died, he said. Their demise represents an estimated loss of $2.8 million. But another less visible, potentially extensive farm loss festered in July - stressed crops. “Rain in August would certainly help, but for those areas suffering, yields will be diminished,” said Gary Erickson, Extension educator for Brown County. “Some areas desperately needed a rain a couple of weeks ago and didn't get one.” Even so, some crops are doing well, making it hard to project what kind of yield loss the area as a whole might experience, he said. “There will always be bright spots and dim spots.” Cattle producers' financial loss could continue as well. Weight gains for the survivors were diminished during the heat wave, producers said. That means additional feed costs to bring the animals to market weight. Gardens: Scant rain last month meant more work for longtime gardener Harriet Loe of Aberdeen. Jugs of water filled her car's trunk and part of its back seat on Tuesday as she tended her vegetable garden. “I carry 20 gallons of water here twice a day,” she said. “That's a lot of work when you give most of the stuff away.” She never watered her potatoes, however, and they thrived. “I've never had potatoes this big,” Loe said as she admired a red potato she had just dug out of a hill. She estimated the spud weighed about a pound. Enormous amounts of water entering the subsoil in early May probably explain why her taters are so big, she said, referring to flooding in early May. Nearly 8 inches of rain fell in about 24 hours in Aberdeen during the first weekend of May. Another irony: Even with the abnormally dry conditions last month, Aberdeen ended July with almost 9 inches more in liquid-equivalent precipitation than it normally gets from January through July. The norm is 13.23 inches; the first six months of this year delivered 22 inches. The city's norm for an entire year is 20.22 inches. More data: July in Aberdeen also had these features, none of which are records: